By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Volunteers at Marion County Resource Center and Food Bank were taken by surprise Thursday when two employees of Great Plains Federal Credit Union showed up to deliver items collected in a friendly competition between all 11 Great Plains branch offices.

Branch manager Elizabeth Wine and bookkeeper Michon Robertson brought 457 pounds of food — so many cans, boxes, and bags it filled the back of a van.

“This is like Christmas in July,” food bank coordinator Cathy Henderson said. “We’ve never gotten this much food.”

Great Plains offices collected food throughout May, reported how many individual items were donated to the home office, and then gave food collections to local food banks.

The Salina office won the top slot, but Hillsboro came in second.

“Our little location in Hillsboro got more cans than they did,” Wine said.

The 1,015 items taken in by Great Plains in Hillsboro were divided equally between the food bank and Hillsboro’s Main Street Ministries, which also operates a food bank.

Demand is high at the food bank during summer months when kids are out of school.

Henderson said it was clear county residents were struggling more this year because of inflation, especially high gasoline prices.

One senior who regularly picks up senior boxes recently called to say she could not make it to Marion because she could not afford to buy gasoline and did not have enough in her tank to make the trip.